British Patent Specification No. 2149650 describes sizing apparatus in which the area of a piece of meat or like product which is to have pieces removed from the end face thereof by a band saw is measured by scanning linearly in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the meat as it passes a scanning head.
The arrangement requires the meat to be supported in an unconventional manner and also requires the band saw to be operating in a vertical sense. Development of the machine has dictated that the meat should traverse with the cut face horizontal so as to be engaged by the horizontal section of a band saw and this requires that the end face of the meat shall be measured as it passes over a cutting table.
The development of the machine has also dictated that the meat is moved around a circular path in a magazine and the radius of the circular path is such that the meat cannot be considered to move in a straight line past a radial line of scanning windows.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a scanner by which an accurate measurement of the area of the product can be obtained.